Tuesday, June 24, 2014

USS Liberty Survivor Ernest Gallo on the perfidious State of Israel

On June 8, 1967, Israeli leaders learned they could deliberately attack a U.S. Navy ship and try to send it, together with its entire crew, to the bottom of the Mediterranean – with impunity. Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty, a state-of-the-art intelligence collection platform sailing in international waters off the Sinai, killing 34 of the 294 crew members and wounding more than 170.

On the 47th anniversary of that unprovoked attack let’s be clear about what happened: Israeli messages intercepted on June 8, 1967, leave no doubt that sinking the USS Liberty was the mission assigned to the attacking Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats as the Six-Day War raged in the Middle East. Let me repeat: there is no doubt – none – that the mission of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) was to destroy the USS Liberty and kill its entire crew.

Referring last week to the controversy of the swap of five Taliban prisoners for Sgt. Bode Bergdahl, President Barack Obama claimed, “The U.S. has always had a pretty sacred rule: We don’t leave our men or women in uniform behind.” The only exception, he might have added, is when Israeli forces shoot them up; then mum’s the word.

Mr. President, try explaining that “pretty sacred rule” to the USS Liberty survivors. I know them well enough to sense the hollow echo that Obama’s claim will leave in their ears – and in the ears of the families of those who did not survive.

The crew of the USS Liberty has been “left behind,” in a figurative as well as a physical sense. There is no way to retrieve the bodies of those washed out to sea through the large hole made by the Israeli torpedo that hit the Liberty amidships, killing 26 of the crew.

There is a way, however, to stop throwing salt in the survivors’ wounds, as every U.S. president since Lyndon Johnson has done in acquiescing to the false narrative that it was all a terrible case of mistaken identity and confusion by Israeli command and control. That salt burns – especially on anniversaries of the tragedy, raising troubling questions about the power of the Israel Lobby and the Israeli government over U.S. politicians.

In apparent fear of the Israel Lobby and not wanting to offend the Israeli government, U.S. officials including the Navy have refused to come clean on what happened 47 years ago. The mainstream U.S. media has been a willing partner in this failure to face the facts and demand accountability.

No Accident

Here, for example, is the text of an intercepted Israeli conversation, just one of many pieces of hard, unambiguous evidence that the Israeli attack was not a mistake:

Israeli pilot to ground control: “This is an American ship. Do you still want us to attack?”

Ground control: “Yes, follow orders.” …

Israeli pilot: “But, sir, it’s an American ship – I can see the flag!”

Ground control: “Never mind; hit it!”

The Israelis would have been able to glory in reporting “mission accomplished, ship sunk, all crew killed” save for the bravery and surefootedness of then-23-year-old Navy seaman Terry Halbardier, whose actions spelled the difference between the murder of 34 of the crew and the intended massacre of all 294.

Halbardier skated across the Liberty’s slippery deck while it was being strafed in order to connect a communications cable and enable the Liberty to send out an SOS. The Israelis intercepted that message and, out of fear of how the U.S. Sixth Fleet would respond, immediately broke off the attack, returned to their bases, and sent an “oops” message to Washington confessing to their unfortunate “mistake.”

As things turned out, the Israelis didn’t need to be so concerned. When President Johnson learned that the USS America and USS Saratoga had launched warplanes to do battle with the forces attacking the Liberty, he told Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to call Sixth Fleet commander Rear Admiral Lawrence Geiss and tell him to order the warplanes to return immediately to their carriers.

According to J.Q. “Tony” Hart, a chief petty officer who monitored these conversations from a U.S. Navy communications relay station in Morocco, Geiss shot back that one of his ships was under attack. Tellingly, McNamara responded: “President Johnson is not going to go to war or embarrass an American ally over a few sailors.”

Getting Away With Murder

For the Israelis, the tight U-turn by the U.S. warplanes over the Mediterranean was proof positive that the Israeli government can literally get away with murder, including killing U.S. servicemen, and that Official Washington and its servile media could be counted upon to cover up the deliberate nature of the attack.

John Crewdson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Chicago Tribune, asked McNamara about this many years later. McNamara’s answer is worth reading carefully; he said he had “absolutely no recollection of what I did that day,” except that “I have a memory that I didn’t know at the time what was going on.”

Crewsdon has written the most detailed and accurate account of the Israeli attack on the Liberty; it appeared in the Chicago Tribune, and also in the Baltimore Sun, on Oct. 2, 2007. Read it and you’ll understand why Crewdson got no Pulitzer for his investigative reporting on the Liberty. Instead, the Tribune laid him off in November 2008 after 24 years.

Several of the Liberty survivors have become friends of mine. I have listened to their stories, as Crewdson did. When June 8 comes around each year I remember them. And on special occasions, as when Terry Halbardier was finally awarded the Silver Star for his bravery, I write about them.

The mainstream U.S. media has avoided the USS Liberty case like the plague. I just checked the Washington Post and – surprise, surprise – it has missed the opportunity for the 46th consecutive year, to mention the Liberty anniversary.

On the few occasions when the mainstream U.S. media outlets are forced to address what happened, they blithely ignore the incredibly rich array of hard evidence and still put out the false narrative of the “mistaken” Israeli attack on the Liberty.

And they attempt to conflate fact with speculation, asking why Israel would deliberately attack a ship of the U.S. Navy. Why Tel Aviv wanted the Liberty and its entire crew on the bottom of the Mediterranean remains a matter of speculation, but there are plausible theories including Israel’s determination to keep the details of its war plans secret from everyone, including the U.S. government.

But there is no doubt that destroying the Liberty and its crew was the mission assigned to Israel’s warplanes and torpedo boats. One Navy Admiral with a conscience, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and before that Chief of Naval Operations) Thomas Moorer, has “broken ranks,” so to speak. Moorer helped lead an independent, blue-ribbon commission to investigate what happened to the Liberty.

The following are among the commission’s findings made public in October 2003:

-That the attack, by a U.S. ally, was a “deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill its entire crew”

-That the attack included the machine-gunning of stretcher-bearers and life rafts

-That “the White House deliberately prevented the U.S. Navy from coming to the defense of the [ship] … never before in naval history has a rescue mission been cancelled when an American ship was under attack”

-That surviving crew members were later threatened with “court-martial, imprisonment, or worse” if they talked to anyone about what had happened to them; and were “abandoned by their own government.”

Doing Justice

Will the USS Liberty survivors ever enjoy the opportunity to know and to tell the real story with all its evil cruelties? Or will silence continue to reign? In a different context, Russian dissident author Alexandr Solzhenitzyn wrote this warning about what silence about evil does to the foundations of justice:

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

President Obama, the crew of the USS Liberty has been “left behind” for way too many years. Do the right thing by them. Face down those who warn that you cannot risk Israel’s displeasure. And add more substance to your rhetoric about our “pretty sacred rule” that we do not leave anybody wearing the American uniform behind.

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He came to Washington over 50 years ago and worked as a CIA analyst under seven Presidents, one less than Gates. Ray now serves on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

On June 8, 1967, Israeli leaders learned they could deliberately attack a U.S. Navy ship and try to send it, together with its entire crew, to the bottom of the Mediterranean – with impunity. Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty, a state-of-the-art intelligence collection platform sailing in international waters off the Sinai, killing 34 of the 294 crew members and wounding more than 170.

There is a way, however, to stop throwing salt in the survivors’ wounds, as every U.S. president since Lyndon Johnson has done in acquiescing to the false narrative that it was all a terrible case of mistaken identity and confusion by Israeli command and control. That salt burns – especially on anniversaries of the tragedy, raising troubling questions about the power of the Israel Lobby and the Israeli government over U.S. politicians.

And what if America was actively spying on an ally during a war and providing that intel to our ally's enemies?

Israeli pilot to ground control: “This is an American ship. Do you still want us to attack?”Ground control: “Yes, follow orders.” …Israeli pilot: “But, sir, it’s an American ship – I can see the flag!”Ground control: “Never mind; hit it!”

Assume for a moment this verbiage is correct.In time of active war. Since when does a FLAG mean shit?

whose actions spelled the difference between the murder of 34 of the crew and the intended massacre of all 294.Halbardier skated across the Liberty’s slippery deck while it was being strafed in order to connect a communications cable and enable the Liberty to send out an SOS. The Israelis intercepted that message and, out of fear of how the U.S. Sixth Fleet would respond, immediately broke off the attack, returned to their bases, and sent an “oops” message to Washington confessing to their unfortunate “mistake.”

Sorry the "fleet" were hundreds of miles away where ALL American naval vessels had been order to be...

the USS Liberty was not supposed to be 9 miles off the coast of gaza

why was the liberty on an illegal spy mission? is that why the president upon learning of it's attack left it out there as he knew his hand in the cookie jar had been exposed?

What the heck was the liberty doing to warrant Israel to WANT to sink it?

there is negligence on America's side of the equation since you HAVE to ask what was the motivation for Israel to sink an American ship.

Blood lust and hatred?

Has Israel attacked and murdered American ever in any other instance?

What was Israel MOTIVE?

Any decent criminal prosecutor would talk about MOTIVE.

Was there an American CRIME being perpetrated? You can site "international waters" all you want, but being 9 miles off the coast of an active war zone is just plain ridiculous.

Put the shoe on the other foot, if during active military actions a ship or plane flew that close what would America do? Let's ask the flight crew and passengers of the Iran Air Flight 655 what they think?

The Israeli and his draft dodging butt buddy are in full flower this morning.

Frantic, they are.

It is interesting, I was watching a video y another 'Jewish' fellow, Norman Finkelstein, and he was saying that US Jewry's support for Israel was bound to the idea that Israel was seen as being 'part' of the United States. How as the truth came out, about apartheid, about the myth of "Purity of Arms' and I would add the USS Liberty, US Jewry's support for Israel was crumbling.

Good thing that. It is enlightening to see that most Jews in the United States do not want to be Israeli Do not want to be connected with the ideas propagated by Israel and deny that Israel represents Judaism. That do not not wish to be hyphenated Americans.Good on them.

I have just found Mr Finkelstein. I think he is a courageous man. I was always Pro Israel until I began to realise the reality of what ws going on in Palestinian territory and the relentless march of the settlements. Suddenly all the protests by Palestinian leaders that Israel did not want peace and were merely stalling looked very different. A map comparing settlements in 1995 and 2015 is stark and depressing. However I would never say that for fear of being anti semite or labelled pro terrorism.﻿

Finklestein pairs morality with intellect and fact, taking no prisoners along the way. What he has sacrificed in the cause of justice is incredible. It really is incredible.

Just watch American Radical and read an article by Chomsky on him. He needs to keep writing. He has single-handedly stood up to the Jewish-Zionist-intellectual community, has honored the memory of his parents and stands against any and all injustices. Just imagine how one man a couple decades or so ago looked at a textbook as an undergraduate student... researched it and then thought.."wait a second".... and never looked back.

Another thing is... when you listen to the arguments in his interviews from the opposing side... you can figure out yourself who is lying and who isn't. I hope and pray he keeps at it.﻿

The Liberty? Was several HUNDRED miles outside the area that they were allowed to be in as per orders of the NAVY.

And Boomers don't go where they are ordered to go either, jackwagon, the idea is to hide. You really don't know how the military works. At least you don't pretend to be a Marine, I'll give you that. You just pretend to be a Jew.

Jay Cristol put out a book whitewashing the U.S.S. Liberty affair and called it an accident and while doing so shifted the blame to the U.S. Much of what he has been debunked such as the '13 investigations have found Israel innocent in the attack'.

An article put out by the Chicago Tribune after Cristol's book came out pretty debunks the rest (h/t to Allen for putting me on to this article during one of our many arguments about Liberty) as well as quoting numerous witnesses who talking of missing tapes, transcripts, and testimony that was left out of the official inquiry.

The article is pretty long, nine pages, but given what we know about LBJ and McNamara now makes the following section kinda believable.

Nor, the survivors said, did they understand why the American 6th Fleet, which included the aircraft carriers America and Saratoga, patrolling 400 miles west of the Liberty, launched and then recalled at least two squadrons of Navy fighter-bombers that might have arrived in time to prevent the torpedo attack -- and save 26 American lives.

J.Q. "Tony" Hart, then a chief petty officer assigned to a U.S. Navy relay station in Morocco that handled communications between Washington and the 6th Fleet, remembered listening as Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, in Washington, ordered Rear Adm. Lawrence Geis, commander of the America's carrier battle group, to bring the jets home.

When Geis protested that the Liberty was under attack and needed help, Hart said, McNamara retorted that "President [Lyndon] Johnson is not going to go to war or embarrass an American ally over a few sailors."

McNamara, who is now 91, told the Tribune he has "absolutely no recollection of what I did that day," except that "I have a memory that I didn't know at the time what was going on."

The Johnson administration did not publicly dispute Israel's claim that the attack had been nothing more than a disastrous mistake. But internal White House documents obtained from the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library show that the Israelis' explanation of how the mistake had occurred was not believed.

Except for McNamara, most senior administration officials from Secretary of State Dean Rusk on down privately agreed with Johnson's intelligence adviser, Clark Clifford, who was quoted in minutes of a National Security Council staff meeting as saying it was "inconceivable" that the attack had been a case of mistaken identity.

"I don't think you'll find many people at NSA who believe it was accidental," Benson Buffham, a former deputy NSA director, said in an interview.

"I just always assumed that the Israeli pilots knew what they were doing," said Harold Saunders, then a member of the National Security Council staff and later assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs.

"So for me, the question really is who issued the order to do that and why? That's the really interesting thing."

The attack "couldn't be anything else but deliberate," the NSA's director, Lt. Gen. Marshall Carter, later told Congress."I don't think you'll find many people at NSA who believe it was accidental," Benson Buffham, a former deputy NSA director, said in an interview."I just always assumed that the Israeli pilots knew what they were doing," said Harold Saunders, then a member of the National Security Council staff and later assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs."So for me, the question really is who issued the order to do that and why? That's the really interesting thing."

So let's recap, the USS Liberty, sailing 400 MILES off course, disobeying a direct order to be with the fleet, was sailing within 9 miles of the coast of Gaza/Israel spying on Israel. The NSA which had hijacked the Liberty by ORDERS from Lt Gen Marshall Carter then states the attack was deliberate.

You understand the Israeli-firster mentality by re-reading Allen’s Jewish view on how they really feel about Christians. My real contempt is for the so-called American politicians and who havn’t the patriotism or the balls to stand up for American servicemen and right the wrongs done to these men by our ridiculous affiliation with the rogue state.

Israel may have done what they thought necessary in a war environment. The bullshit and the lies are annoying and attacking and killing allies is unforgivable; but my real contempt also is for the dicks in D.C. who would sacrifice the lives of American servicemen on the altar of realpolitik.

Are you standing up for our servicemen who are getting maimed in afghanistan due to the ROE changes? Of just about the Liberty? Are you furious with the NSA for putting the Liberty in harms way?

You seem to lack the ability to walk and chew gum at the same time, WiO. Everyone here has complained about the ROE in Afghanistan.

As for the Liberty, stop reading fairy tales put out to sell books. The Liberty was a $40 million NSA spy ship. The NSA told the captain where to take it. However, it was the Joint Chief of Staff that told the NSA where to take. The NSA does what they are told just like the Air Force does what it is told when they are ordered to send an RC-135 into an area of conflict.

quirk: The Liberty was a $40 million NSA spy ship. The NSA told the captain where to take it. However, it was the Joint Chief of Staff that told the NSA where to take. The NSA does what they are told just like the Air Force does what it is told when they are ordered to send an RC-135 into an area of conflict.

I will take your points on face value.

Doesn't change the fact the the USS Liberty was in a war zone, spying on an ally. All that is changed it that you suggest the USS Liberty was acting on orders from the Joint Chiefs.

I've said from the beginning that if the Israeli's thought it was in their national interest to attack the ship of an ally, that is a political decision and they would have to live with it.

However, they didn't man up and live with it. They lied about it and where backed up in that lie by LBJ, first by not responding to the attack by force and then by having a phony hearing on the incident. That too was a political decision in addition to being a mendacious cover-up.

My contempt for the Israel for the attack is small potatoes when compared to my contempt for LBJ for not sending in the jets to take out all Israeli planes and boats in the vicinity of the Liberty.

You understand the Israeli-firster mentality by re-reading Allen’s Jewish view on how they really feel about Christians.

Das Allen wrote about what orhtodox Christians believe and how they have raped, pillaged, and murdered Jews. You should not be surprised. Within the lifetime of a person, Christians were murdering Jews by the millions. Your solution? Oh, yes, "Don't Worry Be Happy." Are you that dense?

Allen wasn't talking Jewish mothers pushing their kids to succeed and them doing it, i.e. nurture. He was saying they, by virtue of being Jewish, have an innate superiority over other peoples, i.e. nature.

Your thinking is so muddled I have no doubt you would be embarrassed for yourself had you that capability.

My gender, sexual orientation, religion, marital status, parental status, and everything else you can think of aren't topics for this blog. I got my own blog for that. But I'm pretty sure you are a white supremacist from Hayden Lake, Idaho who wants to make Jews look bad by being a dick online.

It is an example of hypocrisy that "O" derides others for their sexual orientation, while the State of Israel is promoting that very behavior. Advrtising for the homosexual Jews of the World to vacation in Israel.

Encouraging them to move to Israel, accepting "Gay Marriage" as part of the package ... the state recognizes same-sex couples who marry abroad.

With respect to your niece and the irony of your pride in being given veto power over her marriage partner choice:

It is ironic because you regularly evoke the 'do it for the women' rationale when urging the US military to control Muslim countries.

Much of our concern for the women in some Muslim countries is centered around the fact that they are treated as chattel in their patriarchal society. The father of the family assumes the right to determine what happens to the daughter, how they dress, WHOM THEY MARRY.

Now we have you, who is all in favor of the death and destruction wrought in, say, Afghanistan, and you cry "think of the women" and then, regularly prattle on how great your niece is and how proud you are to have VETO OVER WHO SHE MARRIES.

Bob accepts his role as a man who subjugates of women, rather than educating his "Niece" to the ways of the West.It illustrates his willingness to maintain the patriarchal culture of subjugating women, and exemplifies the hypocrisy of his life.

Hackingbear writes: Burdened with Alabama's highest unemployment rate, long abandoned by textile mills and furniture plants, Wilcox County, Alabama, desperately needs jobs. And the jobs are coming from China. Henan's Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group opened a plant here last month, employing 300 locals. Chinese companies invested a record $14 billion in the United States last year, according to the Rhodium Group research firm. Collectively, they employ more than 70,000 Americans, up from virtually none a decade ago. Powerful forces — narrowing wage gaps (Chinese wages have been doubling every few years), tumbling U.S. energy prices, the rising Yuan — up 30% over the decade — are pulling Chinese companies across the Pacific. Perhaps very soon, Chinese workers will start protesting their jobs being outsourced to the cheap labor in the U.S."

I personally was on the flight line at RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk England at that time in 1967 and watched brand new F-4 Phantoms having the stars and stripes painted over and then we sent them to the little shitty country and in a few weeks, our brothers in arms were being mudered by the scabs that we sent them to.

Dubai's stock market has been taking a beating for weeks, and news of firings at Arabtec, the UAE's largest-listed builder, caused a new round of panic yesterday. Canary in a coal mine. Same thing happened in 2008 right before the fit hit the shan.

That "Old School" crooner, Jimmie Buffett has launched www.margaritaville.tv where he has some of his concert video and MTV attempts on-line. Which in and of itself would not be worth mentioning ...

But he is live streaming some of his Summer Concerts, one of which is tonight, from Ohio.I have watched the last two that he has streamed on-line - and they were quite entertaining if you like his brand of Caribe & Country influenced Rock & Roll.

I think the show launches at 20:00 EDT, but that could be wrong. Check it out, if you're a mind.

CNN had a new VA whistle blower on today, a scheduling analyst from Pheonix, who reports that within the last few weeks, long after the original story broke, files are still being changes. She indicated that names she input into the system as deceased are being put back into the system as alive.

The major investigation going on right now has to do with deaths as a result of delays in treatment. If individuals are said to be alive, the investigators don't bother checking their cases.

It takes a bit of chutzpah to continue trying to cover up when so many eyes are on what is going on.

Pope Francis has declared a sort of holy war on the Mafia. And it's not unreasonable to believe that the Mafia may fight back.

On Saturday, the pope traveled to Calabria, the heartland of one of Italy's biggest organized crime enterprises, the 'Ndrangheta, and, in front of a crowd of more than 100,000, blasted the 'Ndrangheta as example of "the adoration of evil and contempt of the common good." Then he dropped the hammer:

"Those who in their lives follow this path of evil, as mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated." [Pope Francis]

This is a big deal. Southern Italy's mobsters are a pietistic bunch — an overwhelming majority are active Catholics, and religious celebration is an important part of their public image and local legitimacy.

In fact, two of the companies -- Molina Healthcare of Florida and Sunshine Health -- actually requested a price cut.

None of the companies will talk about their filings until they are approved; and a spoiler could still pop up in the four days that remain before the deadline for plans to compete in the 2015 enrollment.

But consumer advocates are cautiously optimistic that this is evidence that the Affordable Care Act is restraining prices for individuals who don't get coverage through a group.

"The fact is, an overall pattern of insurers not seeking rate increases -- and even seeking rate decreases -- is unheard of," said Greg Mellowe, policy director for the consumer advocacy group Florida CHAIN.

Dear Jack, we all know that you, a self confessed murderer of civilians in Central America SHOULD know the difference between murder and killed….

The VA killed them. AND the servicemen died. When you sighted in a 8 year old kid and then pulled the trigger? Blowing off the top of his skull? That was murder. How do you sleep being the child murdering guy that you are?

Our Israeli Butt Boy not only makes money with his as, he talks out of it, too.

Please, forward all authenticating documents to the FBI.For any crimes that have been confessed to.Any crimes that you suspect have occurred.Get on it, Israeli Butt Boy, then rotate, you may earn a tip.

A member of President Obama's Homeland Security Advisory Council known for controversial Twitter posts that seem to support the Muslim Brotherhood wrote Friday that it is “inevitable that 'Caliphate' returns.”

When a wrong is made right, it’s not a net good, but it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye I suppose:

Methodist Pastor, Rev. Frank Schaefer, was given his ordination credentials back today after being stripped of them 6 months ago for performing a wedding for his gay son. After serving a 30 day suspension for performing the ceremony and then refusing to denounce the practice of marrying same-sex couples he was bounced from the denomination and stripped of his ministry rights in the church. That was remedied and made right today.

Those Same Sex couples he marries, they can emigrate to Israel, their marriages will be recognized, there.

The Jewish State of Israel supports Same Sex Marriage immigration,Israel promotes Same Sex Tourism, LOVES to have their people provide tourists with paid sexual services.Israel leads in the all nations on the Mediterranean coast in promoting the Legal Sex Trade.

They want the Sex Trade tourists to come and hire Israeli service workers.It is a BIG foreign exchange and income category for Israel.

These two guys, George and Harry, set out in a Hot Air balloon tocross the Atlantic Ocean. After 37 hours in the air, George says"Harry, we better lose some altitude so we can see where we are".Harry lets out some of the hot air in the balloon, and the balloondescends to below the cloud cover. George says, "I still can'ttell where we are, lets ask that guy on the ground". So Harryyells down to the man "Hey, could you tell us where we are?". Andthe man on the ground yells back "You're in a balloon, 100 feetup in the air". George turns to Harry and says "That man mustbe a lawyer". And Harry says "How can you tell?". George says"Because the advice he gave us is 100% accurate, and totallyuseless".

That's the end of the Joke, but for you people who are stillworried about George and Harry: They end up in the drink,and make the front page of the New York Times: "BalloonistsSoaked by Lawyer".

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.